The 8th Sin
-Calm waters-
Hello, all! To all those loyal readers, I'm very thankful to know that you're still reading... And to others, who aren't very loyal readers, thanks for reviewing and giving me ideas. :)
Anyway, I'm typing up this story as well as a series of short one-shots. One of them is called 'Hanabi', which only has one chapter and is already completed (I'll give you three guesses whose one-shot 'Hanabi' is.) and I'm working on a three-chaptered one titled 'Chimera'. It's for the 'Devil's Nest' crew, excluding the head honcho, I'm afraid.
Oh well, enough about that. I've got this chapter up and now, let's enjoy it. :)
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Rin was in the hospital the next day to treat his wounds and was now resting in his bed, looking outside the window and recalling the night's event. Things haven't gone right. At least not before he was assigned to work under Colonel Roy Mustang.
John had volunteered to keep an eye on both Greed and Freesia and he was grateful for that. God knows what more they can do after Freesia's display of power last night. But at the same time, he felt that it wasn't necessary to keep security that tight around them. Heck, the poor girl cried herself to sleep! The next thought that came through his mind made him frown and made his blood boil.
That other homunculus.
Greed.
Rin had a feeling that man was going to take away the one thing he held dear at that time; Freesia. He sat up, grimacing. Pain shot through his body as he gently touched his broken ribs. Looking at the clock hung on the wall, it read 2.30 p.m, "A week and ten more hours to go... HOPEFULLY..." he muttered to himself miserably.
At the same time, Melody stepped into the room, bringing with her a small something wrapped in a fairly large handkerchief with feather motives on it, Marcus aging along close behind her. He looked at her, surprised and her cheeks took on a shade of pink, which he didn't really notice thanks to her red hair...
"Melody, what are you doing here? I thought I told you I was fine."
Her eyes darted around nervously. She had never been stuck in the same room as Rin alone (I know Marcus is there, but hey, it's like he doesn't exist, the poor li'l pipsqueak.) before.
"Um... I... I took the day off. I got a bit worried," she said with a smile as she dared herself to sit in the chair next to the bed. She found herself sitting in the wretched chair a few moments later. Marcus greeted Rin with a cheerful purr to which Rin replied with a smile. It was rare to see Rin smile. For one thing, he knows not many people like him for what he was; a half-chimera.
Another was that in spite of his cold front, he was lonely. He needed company and yet he's too shy to tell anyone. Sometimes, Melody wondered how Rin met Jonathan in the first place. Oh well, that was all in the past. Rin has grown a bit more talkative than the first time they met and makes smart-ass comments more often. She watched him as Marcus taught him a special handshake that most probably came from Breda and it made her feel happy just to see him enjoy himself in the presence of children.
Looking down at her hands, she just realized that she hasn't given him the little wrapped-up package, "Uh... Rin...?" she caught his attention rather easily and when his eyes were trained in hers, a shiver ran down her spine as she placed the package next to him on the bed, "Here's something for you..."
Rin turned to look at Marcus, who was squeaking happily and gestured eating, "You cooked something for me?" he asked, motioning to the package that he now recognized as a lunch box. Melody nodded shyly and nearly jumped out of her skin when Rin patted her hand, "Thanks," he said serenely, smiling at her. If she were an ice cube, everyone could have seen her melt into a puddle of water but instead she looked as if she was going to die of heat. That made Rin sort of worry,
"Are you okay? Your face is all red," he said, reaching over to touch her forehead. Before he did so, she stood up and took a few steps away from the chair,
"I'm fine! I'm fine! Never better!" she cried in a near-hysterical tone, laughing nervously.
Rin and Marcus exchanged puzzled looks at her behavior but he went and started to eat his lunch anyway. Marcus watched him eat and the winged alchemist muttered to the little chimera boy, "Hospital food stinks to high heavens..."
Melody's goblin-like sibling laughed, rolling on the bed Rin was resting on. Clamping the chopsticks he was using to eat between his teeth, Rin held one hand out to tickle Marcus' belly, making the little boy howl with laughter.
"Rin, stop that! Were in a hospital, for goodness' sake!" Melody said in a hushed tone, ushering Marcus off of the bed.
Rin pouted, "It's my ward for now. Besides, we're the only ones in this room," he said dismissively before he resumed eating again, "By the way, how's Freesia?"
The red-headed alchemist smiled, "She's alright now, I guess. She was still asleep when I visited her this morning."
Rin paused to swallow his food, "Was her friend still there?"
Melody giggled, "Are you kidding? She wouldn't let go of him! You know, I think they make a cute couple, even if they are homunculi."
The chopsticks in Rin's hands threatened to snap in half when he heard that coming out of Melody's mouth. Cute couple? No way! Not if he could help it, at least!
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Freesia was sound asleep in Rin's bed, blanket up to her waist and both arms wrapped around Greed's. Yes, you read the sentence correctly; she's hugging Greed's arm.
Greed lay on the bed next to her, wide awake and with one arm behind his head as he constantly looked to see if her grip on him had loosened. Unfortunately, through the night up till now, she still held him in a vice grip. Surprisingly, this whole thing was testing his patience. He just learned that Freesia wasn't a heavy sleeper nor was she a light sleeper. As a matter of fact, she hibernates! Once she falls asleep, nothing could wake her unless she woke up herself and from the looks of her, it doesn't look like she was going to wake up anytime soon!
Greed sighed and tried pulling his arms out of her grip for the umpteenth time. No go. She didn't even stir. However, his golden chance came earlier than expected. Her bangs had poked into her eye so she had to let him go and brush her hair off her face. (Hey, that can make her move!)
'Freedom, finally!' Greed thought gleefully and was just sitting up, getting ready to leave the room when a pair of slender arms snaked around his waist and pulled him back down on the bed. Greed cursed under his breath and looked down to see Freesia snuggling up to his chest, fast asleep.
He was just thinking of another escape plan when John came into the room. It was impossible not to laugh at how helpless the homunculus looked at that time and John strained to suppress a laugh.
Greed glared at the alchemist, "One word out of you and I'll break your neck."
"Go ahead. That is, IF you can get out of bed!" with that, John left the room, laughing away.
Greed could feel his blood pressure rising. He was just going to bolt for the door and beat the Storm Front Alchemist to a pulp but unfortunately, having Freesia clinging on to him like a koala made it impossible for him to do so. He gave up trying to escape and ended up lying back down in defeat.
Freesia sighed when he stopped struggling and held him tighter, mumbling something in her sleep. Her prisoner sighed too, in exasperation as he gave her a playful knock on the head and muttered, "Stubborn kid..."
She smiled at that and turned her head so she could look at him. Her eyes fluttered open to meet his, both pair having the same shade of violet as she smiled and said, "I'm not stubborn, just possessive."
"Why, you little...! You weren't asleep!" he cried, half-angry and half-exasperated as he attempted to shove her off of him, but she held on.
His captor laughed almost melodically, "Hey Greed, did you have any idea how cuddly you are?"
"No, and I don't really intend to find out. Get off!"
"Why? I thought you like it," she said teasingly, hanging onto the muscular homunculus as if for dear life.
To him, this was like quarreling with a seven-year old, "I would if you don't cling on to me as if I'm a life support system or something!"
"Meaning to say if I let you go now, you'd let me hug you?" she teased him further; purposely lengthening their little 'game' as she also learned that Greed was a sore loser.
"I can't say. One thing's for sure; if you don't let go of me now, we'd both... ARGH!" all the writhing and shoving finally pushed the two off the edge of the bed, Greed landing painfully on his back and Freesia right on top of him in an awkward position. Her face was merely inches away from his as she laughed,
"Sorry 'bout that. But it was fun, wasn't it? Wanna do it again?"
Greed huffed, "I beg to differ. Now get off of me."
She giggled, "Hey Greed, wanna give Rin a heart attack?"
He chuckled and picked up the book he'd neglected the night before and opened to the page where he'd stopped reading, "Don't feel like it."
Freesia frowned and pouted, "Okay, I'll get straight to the point. I want to go back to Dublith," she announced, crossing her arms over her chest. Greed looked at her as if she'd grown a second head and asked,
"Why?"
"I've been wanting to go back home ever since I arrived here a few days ago. So, are you going to help me or not?"
Greed's smirk disappeared from his face. He sighed and resumed reading for a moment before saying, "I've lost everything there. I don't have a reason to go back."
His companion fell silent at that. She sat down on the bed with him and said, "How do you know you've lost everything? You weren't even conscious when you left."
She had a point there and when he shifted his gaze to her, she gave him a broad smile that would have made Lust proud of her, "Let's make a bet, shall we? When we reach Dublith, I'm betting we find something that used to belong to you. To add to the list, I'm betting I can find something interesting about us homunculi."
"And what makes you so sure you're going to win?" he asked, a smirk creeping back onto his face.
She grinned at him, "Because I'm Freesia."
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Downstairs, John was just listening to the radio while making himself something to eat when he started feeling uneasy. It was too quiet... For a minute there, the two upstairs were having quite a lot of fun making such a racket. Grabbing the last cookie off his plate and downing the last of his milk, Jonathan Winrain went upstairs to check on them. Upon opening the door, he had the shock of his life.
The two homunculi were gone. Vanished. Poof. Just like that.
The Storm Front Alchemist cursed under his breath and started panicking. He hated to admit this, but he's doomed for sure if Rin finds out. Hey wait; he could still zap Rin's wings... But that wasn't the case. He leaned out of the window with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the two, but to no avail. They were gone.
"Shit... And this just HAD to happen when I'm around! Why can't those two disappear while Rin's on the job?" John released a string of colorful swear words to no one in particular and grabbed his coat to search around town for them, "Stupid homunculi!" he cried out loud as he stormed off.
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"Ah-choo!"
"Oy, we haven't gotten that far and you caught a cold ALREADY?"
"Shut up, Greed. Someone must be talking about me... By the way, is my ticket with you?" Greed waved both their train tickets in front of her face and when she made to grab it, he pulled it away in the nick of time; just for the fun of annoying her.
They continued the game for a while before Freesia got tired and fell asleep with her head on Greed's shoulder. He smiled at the sight and muttered to himself that she was a lot prettier when she's tame.
Back at the hospital, poor Rin suddenly had lots of bad omens happening to him. A black cat had just jumped into his lap, Marcus had accidentally plucked out more than one of his feathers, his shoelaces broke without him even going near it and he came down with an extremely high fever...
"Why do I get the feeling Freesia isn't where she's supposed to be...?" he moaned as he rolled over in his bed. Oh, he had no idea...
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I liked the ending part. :)
Oh yeah, I just thought up of a pretty nifty idea for the next chap so you'd better stay tuned! That is, if you don't want to miss Melody's encounter with Envy, ALONE, on the streets and Freesia going to Rush Valley after Dublith, where she meets the Elrics again!
Alright, I've said too much. Time to go and finish what I just spilled:)
Please R & R!